I have previously told you of six separate substantiated complaints brought against NorCo nursing home Gracedale during the time that Michelle Morton was its Administrator. I'm unsure whether she has quit her job as she had indicated. but I can tell you that the home was hit with another citation on November 18, 2025, for failure to have "a minimum of 1 nurse aide per 10 residents during the day, 1 nurse aide per 11 residents during the evening, and 1 nurse aide per 15 residents overnight."
According to the state Department of Health, Gracedale failed to meet these minimum staffing requirements in 7 of 21 days reviewed.
For its part, Gracedale promised to be in compliance by the beginning of this year and added this legal gobbledygook: "The corrections set forth in this document do not constitute admission or agreement by the provider of the truth or facts alleged or the conclusions set forth in the statement of deficiencies. The Plan of Correction is prepared and executed solely because it is required by provisions of the Federal and State Law."
The current CMS rating for Gracedale is just one star (much below average) because of both health inspections and quality control. Moreover, the home has been red flagged for potential issues related to abuse.
This could explain why the census is below what the budget has projected.
18 comments:
Gracedale is like a sore that never heals, and NORCO is not a good doctor.
Again, this all comes back to Mr. McClure and his micro-managing the budgets of all these agencies under his control. He was insistent on a "no tax increase budget" because he was making a run for Congress and he didn't want to be labeled with being a "tax and spend" Democrat. He lied about the County being financially stable and in excellent financial condition. He has underfunded the budgets of several departments to the tune of millions of dollars. In the next several months, newly elected County Council members and the County Executive are going to have to address these shortfalls. McClure will never win that Congressional seat.
Going back a few years, how does a facility like "Gracedale" go from full employment and one of the finest Nursing Facilities in the State to having this huge shortage in employees and rated as one of the most undesirable Nursing Homes in the Region if not the State? How long has this been going on? When did these negative ratings begin? We used to have a waiting list for people to come to Gracedale and for employees to work at Gracedale. When did this all go bad?
government runs it what do you expect
Would you place your loved one in a facility with citations from DOH including documented abuse, neglect , immediate jeopardy of a resident, resident abuse of each other and by a staff member? All of this and all David Holland can say as that “ it’ll probably need money”?
The crown jewel of Northampton County.
All fairness : These ratings and failures did not happen overnight. This is the exact result of years of refusing to pay attention to nursing voids, poor scheduling, overloading overtime and shifts on those that are already carrying too much. The federal regs never were addressed properly as noted above. There was no proper planned management to address aid shortages, or staff input on the Tower floors for help. This home is in serious need of a professional nursing home management group, or this current administration will have its failure on its hands.
Even people who work there and residents don't know who's running the joint.
Keep the towers as a nursing home. Lease the old building to other businesses or put other county offices there. There’s enough parking at the facility already for any professional use that establishes itself there. Maybe offer tax incentives?????
It was the crown jewel until the past county council and Exec. used money for parking lots and whatever
McClure threw out the professional firm managing Gracedale, so he could micromanage it with yes people he hired. He threw up barriers to those wanting to look intro things.
The so-called Gracedale Advisory committee is made up of his union boss buddy, and retirees that are almost MAGA in their love of McClure over residents.
It would appear the budget for Gracedale was manipulated to make the numbers work.
Zirisnki is foolish to keep the Human Services Director who allowed this. She was set up and will have to decide if Gracedale should be kept or sold. The new council is clueless and will do what Kraft wants. Giving McClure a job is strange. There are other areas of the budget that are suspect, or so I have been told.
She will have a tough rime especially with keeping all the McClure loyalists.
Put new people on the advisory board and open an investigation into Gracedale operations.
McClure wanted to return to an in-house manager bc the managing firm was expensive. Let me add that the Administrator who followed D failed to inspire confidence and the home began to suffer. McClure did not act on his own but ran it through Council. It was opposed most vocally by John Cusick. In hindsight, Cusick may have been correct. The real advisory committee is County Council, who has an obligation to provide oversight. The citizen advisory committee consists of people who worked at Gracedale, among others. That includes the "union boss".
Excuses. Just what the residents need.
The only things McClure cared about was one not raising taxes and 2 buying farms. And the only way he could do that was on the backs of county employees. And he did it. And he saw the writing on the wall that he got as far as he could with what he was doing and he jumped ship.
Good luck Tara . It's time to be honest with the residents of northampton County, the employees and the residents that depend on the county.
So now let’s see what the first call of county business is with the new council and new executive. How will the agenda be set up?
The next few months will be critical to the financial stability of Gracedale and to the county employees concerns of parity compared with other counties.
Need to open up investigations on every county department is run. But first you need to get out the loyalists to Lamont and the people who are going to try to cover their actions from the past.
Start with HR who isn't there to help the employees but to screw the employees over to make numbers.
At least the workers have a free daycare
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